Rebel Without a Cause

This is Agyness Deyn as photographed by James Franco. He is filming an upcoming remake of Rebel Without a Cause, and his photo project has a strong correlation with the film. Each photo is "meant to tackle a facet of Rebel, from the director’s paternal and, Franco says, abstract psycho-sexual dynamic with his stars, to the film’s imagined lost scenes" (Elle.com). '

When we watched The Celluloid Closet in class, we saw that a character, Plato, in the original Rebel Without a Cause is infatuated with Jim, James Dean's character. I've never seen the movie but from what I've read of it, Plato is the most "love-starved" character and the one without a clear father figure. He changes his story about his father often, and clings to the other two characters, Jim especially.

It might be a bit late to discuss some points made by The Celluloid Closet, but film is powerful in many aspects of culture, and such ambiguous relationships as Jim and Plato's are necessary for a realer, and thus more appealing, film. If attraction cannot be simply put as heterosexual or not, it makes sense for a film to skirt over the labeling of such interest. I think that the reason so many films depict unclear gender relations is that everybody involved in creating such films knew that these are not as clear as the names "homosexual" or "straight" seem to imply.

"Kiss Me, My Fool!"

Not long ago, I watched a silent film named A Fool There Was starring Theda Bara, one of Hollywood's first stars of the screen. The film narrated a successful diplomat falling hopelessly for a predatory woman, called the "Vamp." Rudyard Kipling's poem "A Fool There Was" in part inspired the movie, and the poem occurs throughout the film.

A fool there was and he made his prayer
(Even as you and I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair
(We called her the woman who did not care),
But the fool he called her his lady fair
(Even as you and I!)

Oh the years we waste and the tears we waste
And the work of our head and hand,
Belong to the woman who did not know
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand.

A fool there was and his goods he spent
(Even as you and I!)
Honor and faith and a sure intent
But a fool must follow his natural bent
(And it wasn't the least what the lady meant),
(Even as you and I!)

Oh the toil we lost and the spoil we lost
And the excellent things we planned,
Belong to the woman who didn't know why
(And now we know she never knew why)
And did not understand.

The fool we stripped to his foolish hide
(Even as you and I!)
Which she might have seen when she threw him aside--
(But it isn't on record the lady tried)
So some of him lived but the most of him died--
(Even as you and I!)

And it isn't the shame and it isn't the blame
That stings like a white hot brand.

It's coming to know that she never knew why
(Seeing at last she could never know why)
And never could understand.

The film made Theda an almost overnight star. Her successive screen roles often drew from the film and showed her as "an unrepentant vamp bent on wholesale destruction."

While Theda is fascinating herself, for the purpose of the class, I am more interested in the role she took for the film. She has the power of an enchantress over men, but the love she draws from them never appears wholesome. Rather, she brings men down to the dregs of society, transforming a previously respectable figure into a penniless drunkard or worse. One desperate man, seeing her abandon him for another, takes a gun to threaten her. With a coquettish smile the woman bats away the gun with a single rose before demanding, "Kiss me, my fool!" He shoots himself and she is later described as laughing over his body.

Opposite to her is the diplomat's wife, who is both visually brighter with her fair hair and clothes and in every way promoting chastity, faithfulness, and motherhood. She swoons upon discovering her husband is staying in Italy having an affair with the woman, yet pleads with him several times to return. Her young daughter has no lack of affection from her. There is actually a scene in which the daughter goes to the woman played by Theda Bara to offer a flower, and Theda is ready to accept with a smile when the girl's aunt steps in and takes both the flower and the child. The commentary here is that a woman who does not exemplify the ideals of chastity and faithfulness does not deserve the pleasure of motherhood.

The film goes on until the previously upstanding diplomat is reduced to an incoherent and volatile drunkard, overtaken by the Vamp.

Her role in the movie reminds me of Florentina from The Ravages of Vice. Both the Vamp and Florentina form a romantic relationship to married men to the disadvantage of the men's spouses. Both only bring destruction in the union. Both escape consequence and end up lavishly accounted for while those with which they come into contact face ruination and tragedy.

MACHO Masculinity

What has really happened between contemporary roles in society between men and women? Society loves to say that we have come along way. Women are now able to vote and earn high paying positions in the workplace. While having a stay at home father is now becoming common.  In this article The “new macho” rethinking masculinity we are able to see how a gender change is taking place in present day. Currently it is not common for a father to take maternity leave after a baby is born. This is slowly ever changing in this economy where there is uproar in sector jobs dominated by females. Currently with the economy the masculine jobs as construction are being wiped out while tradionally female role jobs are increasing. While construction and manufacturing jobs are decreasing there is an increase in nursing and teacher jobs. In this article it is seen that California is the first state to offer parental leave for men and women but men are not accepting this maternity leave. “Men have a choice: either feel inadequate or get a lot more creative” says Joan Williams, author of “Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter.”

Men are said to have career and family issues at times for putting work before the family. But this is said to change in the years to come where men will be allowed to obtain paternity leave. The question is will men accept this paternity leave. Will it be acceptable in our modern culture for men to take days of work due to parental leave. Although paternity leave might not be common among males in America is very common in Europe. In Sweden about 80 percent of men take paternity leave its seen badly if a man does not take maternity leave for his baby. The family does not accept this type of behavior. That is why this federal budget will help shift male social norms may be a spark that helps re-ignite the stalled gender revolution and pave the way for greater gender equality, and might also be the driving force behind the new American economy in the 21^st century.

Wild Tigers I Have Known

After Diego's lecture, I watched Wild Tigers I Have Known for the first time. In the scene we saw in class, Logan visited various areas with Rodeo before calling him. When he called Rodeo, he did not move his lips and Rodeo heard a girl's voice, voiced by Ruth Elliott. The slow oscillation of lights in Logan's room and his changed voice despite his immobile lips convinced me to view each scene of the movie as a partially subjective experience. Considering Logan's frequent loneliness, I understood that his false identity as Leah might suggest an unadulterated flow of thoughts and feelings from his person. My guess went well with Logan's dialogue as well as his choice of identity as a girl. His words were straightforward and suggestive when he was Leah. He was mostly only conversational when he was Logan.

The film placed each scene so that, while Logan hardly spoke, the viewer had a subtle understanding of his development. Often he would stand before a mirror and make small alterations to himself. He might write on his torso or try on lipstick. After a fiasco with Rodeo, he donned a wig and full makeup. In these scenes Logan is silent but not inexpressive. The viewer does not require his speech to recognize that he is troubled by the difference between his perception of himself and the perception of the mirror, the perception of outsiders. If desire is as vast a reservoir of impulse as queer theory contends, Logan has particularly more difficulty reconciling his desire with social constraints.

A CA Nursing School expels a Transgender Student

A baptist nursing school in CA expelled a student once they found out she was transgendered. Domaine Javier reportedly falsely filled out on her application that she was female and as a result has engaged in "fraud and/or concealing identity."

So are administrators insisting/truly believing that because she is transgendered she lacks the capacity to learn?

Javier believes she didn't do anything wrong (and rightly so) and says she sees herself as a female.

It's possible the school would never have known about her identity if she wasn't on the MTV show, True Life. The title of the program was entitled, "I'm Passing as Someone I'm Not" in an effort to raise awareness on transgender issue.

California law prohibits employment, housing, government, insurance and other types of discrimination based upon gender identity. HOWEVER, private universities don't fall under this legislation!

This is not only disappointing, but also tremendously sad. No one should be deprived of an education.

Kim Kardashian Divorce

Kim Kardashian held a 10 million dollar, televised wedding with her soon-to-be husband, NBA player Kris Humphries. 72 days later, they divorced.

While the outcome of this extravagant wedding ceremony may seem almost comical, there has been widespread lesbian outrage over the the entire process.

In an open letter to the eldest Kardashian, hollywood power-couple Jill Goldstein and Nikki Weiss-Goldstein display their frustrations, stating how they suspect that while Kim was using her wedding to further her career, gays are being denied "over 1,000 federal protections as a result of not being allowed to legally marry."

The couple asks, "Are you able to understand how devastating it is to love someone dearly, want to spend your life with them through a legally recognized and respected union, only to be denied that civil right because people in position of political power don’t think it’s “right”?...We had to take countless measures to ensure that our honorable bond was guarded, in areas of healthcare, parenting, benefits, and taxes—just to name a few. We wonder if you appreciated just how many rights your marriage with Kris was afforded when you collected all those profits."

The Kardashian divorce will go down in history as a big wakeup call to the unjust prohibition of gay marriage.

This is a trailer of "Miss Representation", a documentary about how the media portrayal of women today is all about the body, sexual appeal, the looks, instead of what is really inside a woman. Such an image of women undermines their true capability, as the society views her body, instead of her intellectual capacity, as priority, resulting in the lack of respect for women. An example is on how Sarah Palin was trivialized by the media during her Presidential campaign, instead of focusing on her ability. Such is the sad truth in today's media-dominated society, as women are not given the basic respect that they deserve. As a society, we are gradually progressing towards more equal rights for women. However, as we are largely a patriarchal world, it is a challenge to achieve total equality between women. Nevertheless, the media portrayal of women should be focused on women's intellect instead of her physical looks.